Fighting White Rage, Splitting with Anarchism?

Many of us quietly as well as openly wonder why we remain supportive of an anarchist movement that seems so deeply opposed to people of color and invested in defending white power and privilege among its adherents.

Illvox.org Preface Notes: The piece below, published here under a pseudonym by permission of the author, raises an important dialog as more anarchists of color seek solutions for critical questions.

What advantage is there in calling ourselves anarchists?

Not so long ago, “Six Reasons Why People of Color Need Anarchism” was posted to illvox.org, advocating anarchism as a viable option. This view gives a different perspective on anarchism’s impact on revolutionary, people of color-led tendencies.

To be frank, such discussions as the piece below puts forward have been happening internally among anarchists of color for some time. Many of us quietly as well as openly wonder why we remain supportive of an anarchist movement that seems so deeply opposed to people of color and invested in defending white power and privilege among its adherents. Another recently posted piece, “An Open Letter to White Progressives/Radicals,” called out a number of white supremacist habits and was, as the piece predicted, furiously refuted by whites. While there are no doubt some white anarchists who ‘get it,’ many anarchists of color are happy to tell you that it’s not our job to teach the far larger number of reactionary white anarchists about racial justice and why global white supremacy matters.

This piece is brief by author’s admission, as a means of starting a conversation.
10 Reasons for APOC as “Autonomous People of Color” as Opposed to Anything Else

By Negro Mankno

10. Both the Marxist and anarchist tendencies in the U.S. consistently exhibit white supremacist chauvinism, organizational cultism, leadership cultism, and historical revisionism; especially as it relates to workers of color.

9. Workers of color are the MAJORITY in the world. Here in AmeriKKKa we still think and act as a “minority.” This is one of the reasons we get what we get: crumbs and/or crucified.

8. Only we can save ourselves. If others decide to add-on and assist, that’s great. But to expect their help is bourgeois ideology. “Affirmative action” is NOT the same as “reparations.” Only our brains (and our bullets) can grant us and guarantee us our collective freedom.

7. We still spend entirely too much time spinning our wheels dealing with white anarchists and white progressives, rather than reaching out to our brothers and sisters who look like us and live like us.

6. All knowledge can trace its roots to the various cultures we originate from. The first strike for better wages and working conditions in recorded history occurred in 1170 BC in Egypt. Marxism and Bakuninist anarchism comes out of Freemasonry, which was the product of the Egyptian Mystery System. Both Marx and Bakunin were 32nd degree Masons, as was Lenin’s father and Mao’s #2, Lin Bao.

5. J. Sakai’s Settlers: Mythology of the White Proletariat outlines clearly the truth of the worker’s movement. Few of us have read or digested these lessons. The real proletariat is non-white and the real proletariat is not the radicalized intelligentsia. The natural result of allowing a radicalized intelligentsia to seize state power is Stalinism, dictatorship of the party over the people. And all of us can bear witness to this dynamic in our activism; even amongst so-called “anarchists” and “anti-authoritarians.”

4. Autonomy shows our solidarity with the international working class, and our break with classic anarchism and Marxism, even as we may share some common ideas, concepts, and goals with both; like anti-KKKapitalism. True self-determination begins with answering the question: “do I have ideas…or do ideas have me?”

3. “Autonomy” demands and demonstrates a new orientation and socio/political platform for active class struggle from a non-white perspective.

2. The main reason we see clashes between communities of color, like Mexicans versus Blacks for example, is due to the interference of outside reactionary forces working in concert with reactionary forces within our communities. The reactionaries within our communities (regardless of actual economic status) who enable the larger power structure to do what it does must be singled out, neutralized, and/or ruthlessly destroyed; otherwise the revolution will never see the light of day. We must have the total support of the majority of our respective peoples or we will fail. This is what we need to focus on.

1. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So why do we seek to imitate those who routinely oppress us?

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It is sad that this article appears on anarkismo.net and even on the APOC site.

There are many reasons one adopts the label of "anarchist" and the similarity among such people is not so high.

For pro-organization, social class-struggle anarchist-communists, the reasons why one joined that movement are not part of the movement - only personal history.

Irrespective of whether one has adopted the struggle due to one kind of dissatisfaction with class society or another, the aim is common to all of the included.

For sure, people have specific backgrounds and positions in society.

People differ in their sensitivities and experience... but racist or sexist or white supremacy together with social class-struggle anarchist-communism is an oxymoron. (As it is, in my opinion, if people care just for one aspect of the wrongs of class society or for only one section.)

When a person of "color" asks "why People of Color Need Anarchism", I doubt whether the anarchism that person holds is really my kind of anarchism.

If a person has doubts about the need for a real anarchist social system for all people, that person still has a long way to go before they reach social class-struggle anarchist-communism.

The other day in a discussion with a Palestinian anarchist comrade in a demonstration in Ni'ilin, he said that he did specific acts because he is Palestinian. We had to run away just as I wanted to tell him that he may have become an anarchist activist because of his suppression as a Palestinian, but as for the specific act, when the consequences are the same, it is ours to do or not to do because we are anarchists in a direct action - regardless of our origin.